Woman charged after climbing crane near Toronto waterfront
Posted August 16, 2018 7:35 am.
Last Updated August 16, 2018 5:32 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Police have charged a 34-year-old woman after she climbed a construction crane near the waterfront on Thursday morning.
Emergency crews were called to the area around 6:30 a.m. after the woman was spotted around 140 feet up on the platform level of the crane by the operator’s booth. It wasn’t immediately clear how long she had been there.
Crews climbed onto the crane to rescue the woman, who was topless at the time. One of her rescuers gave her a T-shirt to wear.
“She was pacing around,” said Toronto Fire District Chief William Bygrave. “Looked like she had either a shirt wrapped around her head or a headband on or something. She looked confused, really disoriented up there.”
Police said emergency task force officers were talking to the woman in the cab of the crane when they moved in and grabbed her. She screamed at first but then calmed down and agreed to be placed in a harness.
She climbed down on her own just before 9 a.m.
“She was secured in a harness and on a safety rope and we had people below her and people above her (as she climbed down),” Bygrave said.
Ian Peters with Toronto fire said he was at the base of the crane as the woman climbed down.
“There was quite a few people involved in the rescue,” he said. “I would say about 50 people.”
The woman damaged the crane during the incident, rendering it inoperable.
Dozens of police cruisers and emergency task force vehicles were at the scene as morning rush hour traffic piled up on nearby roads.
Toronto police spokeswoman Const. Jenifferjit Sidhu said the roads were closed as a precaution, but have since been reopened.
Lindsey Flockhart faces charges of mischief and fail to comply with probation order. She is due in court on Friday.
In April 2017, a 23-year-old woman was stranded for hours after climbing a crane at a downtown construction site.
She was rescued by a firefighter who climbed up and rappelled down the towering machinery with her.
Marisa Lazo pleaded guilty to two counts of mischief, but received an absolute discharge in January and was ordered to pay a victim surcharge.
And in August 2017, a man scaled a construction crane near Jarvis and Dundas streets, finally agreeing to come down after three hours. He was detained under the Ontario Mental Health Act.
With files from The Canadian Press
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